Mourad Tsimpou during the L1 match between Olympique de Marseille (OM) and Stade Brestois at the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille, on September 29, 2019. (AFP / GERARD JULIEN)
Mourad Tsimpou, a young piano prodigy known under the stage name Mourad, died on Saturday at the age of 19 from a long illness, one of his managers announced to AFP.
He died Saturday morning at the Necker children’s hospital in Paris, following a rare liver disease (ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, OTC) from which he suffered since childhood, explained Salim Lebghil, one of the two leaders of 1392 Records.
Mourad’s musical story began during yet another visit to the Marseille Timone hospital. Originally, like Zinedine Zidane, from the city of Castellane in the northern districts of Marseille, he discovered a piano there, he who had never played one in his life. He was 14, listened to an impromptu Chopin on the Internet and reproduced it while improvising. Mourad had “absolute pitch, he played without a score”, explains Salim Lebghil.
The scene was captured by another patient, who posted it on social networks, sparking incredible enthusiasm.
It was the start of a whirlwind career, two albums, a third in preparation. He collaborated with André Manoukian, the rap star Soprano and for example performed at the Top 14 rugby final in 2021 playing La Marseillaise or before an Olympique de Marseille match.
“The blue and white people will remember a boy who expressed his love for Marseille and OM like no one else using his piano,” the Marseille football club reacted on X, ex-Twitter.
“A genius pianist from Marseille. His unique playing, so young, impressed and moved us all,” tweeted the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, while the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier, considered that “Mourad Tsimpou has given us the grace of rare and fraternal moments.”
He will be buried in the Comoros where his family is from.
